OASIS, which launched its first ever standalone shop in Worcester two years ago, has collapsed.
Administrators Deloitte say they have been unable to rescue the fashion company and all its stores will close indefinitely, including the Crowngate Shopping Centre store that only opened in March 2018.
The launch of the 1,480 sq ft store in Chapel Walk, was seen as a sign of the growing brand that sold women’s fashion clothing. In Worcester Oasis also had a franchise in House of Fraser.
But with tough times on the High Street in recent years, and the lockdown forcing High Street shops to close nationally for weeks, Oasis has not survived.
READ MORE: Fashion business Oasis opens at Crowngate in Worcester
READ MORE: Debenham formally enters administration
The failure to save any part of Oasis Warehouse Limited along with The Idle Man and Bastyan Fashions, will result in the loss of 1,803 jobs nationally.
It is not known how many of these job losses will be in Worcester.
Deloitte added it had sold the intellectual property and the company’s stock to restructuring expert Hilco Capital, but Hilco had decided not to buy the rest of the business.
Administrator Rob Harding said: “Covid-19 has presented extraordinary challenges which have devastated the retail industry.
"It is with great sadness that we have to announce a sale of the business has not been possible and that we are announcing so many redundancies.
“This is a very difficult time for the group’s employees and other key stakeholders and we will do everything we can to support them through this.
“We would like to thank all the employees and other key stakeholders in the group for their continued support."
Meanwhile there is continued uncertainty surrounding another major chain that has a city store.
Previously we reported that Debenhams had confirmed it had gone into administration for the second time this year.
Debenhams later announced some of its stores would not reopen when lockdown is lifted to be able to allow non essential shops to reopen, but Worcester's branch was not included on the list not reopening.
It has since emerged that Debenhams' High Street building is now being listed on Realla as 'to let but subject to vacant possession'.
Debenhams has told us it does not own the building, and is a move by its owners.
A Debenhams spokesman said: "We are not commenting on individual stores but it would be worth noting on background that we lease the stores, we don’t own any of them, they often change hands with the tenancy unaffected and if the landlord is selling the site it doesn’t necessarily follow that we are exiting."
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